Games The Comic Book Character Draft ReduX [Ed: That's #10 for those keeping score]

Welcome, true believers, to the tenth installment of the Comic Book Character Draft!

I am your host, EmpireForever. And you, if you should be so bold, are the player. You will choose your champions. You will compete for the most elusive prize in all of the known universes. To be crowned ultimate champion of the Comic Book Draft!

The winner of the last draft was: Shadow_of_Durron(his second award!)! As a reward, Shirley got a week of colors and a title, and everyone hated him just that much more. The winner this time can expect the same, as well as enshrinement into the CBD HoF. Those most amazing and wonderful of GMs.

Now, some of you are familiar with these drafts games, and some of you may not be, having newly become a GM. Regardless, these games are fun to play, read, watch, judge, you name it! Let's take a look at how such a thing as a draft is played:

If you're new to this type of game, don't be put off by the length of this post explaining all the rules. It's as long as it is because I want to make sure that everything is clear to everyone before we get started. It's really not all that complicated when you break it all down. If you think you might be interested, go ahead and sign up, then come back and read up on the rules and procedures. Then, if you think it's all too much for you, (which I don't think it should be for anyone) you can always just say that you're not up to it and vacate your spot.

Okay, now for how the game works (A lot of you may be familiar with most of this, but I'm going to go into detail for anyone who may be new to the game):

THE POSITIONS

Okay, first off, there are three different positions in this draft:

The Commissioner: (That's me). I get the boring job of randomizing the draft order, posting matchups, and other stuff you don't need to know about, so don't ask. If you have any questions just ask me.

The Judges
The judges choose who will win and who will lose. Do not argue with the judges, for they see all and know all. Unless you think your guy should maybe win, they I guess you should argue with them. The judges cast their votes for who they think will win. That's the basic idea. It's pretty basic. I'm going to stop explaining it now. If you are interested you may sign up below.

The GMs
Hey, that's you(maybe)! Congratulations, you've decided to be a GM, and are going to participate. It's very simple, you will be in charge of drafting the characters you would like on your team, and sending in numbers when it's time to play the game. What are numbers? I'm so glad you asked. Allow me to explain...

The Game Process
A draft takes place in two parts: part 1 is the actual draft, where you and the other GMs select characters from a list to be on your team(like a pick up game of backyard baseball), part 2 is the where we will pit these characters against one another in mortal kombat and ask the question "who would win if Professor X fought Y: The Last Man?". Allow me to take you through the process.

Step 1: Sign-Ups & The Draft Order
To begin, I will post a sign-up list(see below), once that list is full, it will look something like this:

1.Darth_Deception2.SLAVE23.Maxle4.Bassil5.Zizz6.Yak7.TLI8.Shirley

Once the roster of participants is full, I will randomize the order(it doesn't matter when you sign up, so don't worry if you're the last one), and the new order will look something like this:

That done, the player in first position will be on the clock, and the draft will begin. The order flips, or snakes, every round, so the player choosing first in round 1 will pick last in round 2. Example:

Step 2: The List, Picking, and The Clock
Once the game begins, each player will have 24 hours on the clock to make their selection. If they don't make a selection within that time frame, the player will be "bumped", and it will become the next player's turn. The player who is bumped will at that point be able to select a character at their next earliest convenience. However, the draft will continue with the next player being able to pick, and, if the next player does pick, the player after that player will be able to and so on, until the bumped party makes their missed pick. Basically, you lose your dibs.

Picks are made from the list provided. If you do not see a name on the list, that character is unavailable to draft. Picks are made one at a time, unless they are a team pick.

The list is made up of 2 parts: the regular list and team lists. You make take 1 selection at a time from the regular list, or, if you choose, 2 selections from a certain team list(that is to say, no mixing of the team lists; if a character is on the Teen Titans team list, she cannot be paired with a character from the X-Men list). Taking 2 characters from a team list is the same as 1 character from the regular list. Some characters are already paired together on the regular list; they will look like this: Spider-Man/Black Cat--the slash indicates that these 2 characters are taken as a pair at the cost of 1 pick.

Step 3: Matchups, Preps, and Trumps
Once the draft portion of the game is completed(10 rounds), we will move into matchups. Players will send their teams in on a set of numbers from 1-8, leaving 2 of their characters out of play for each matchup(who you decide not to play is up to you, but you must choose 2 of your selections to sideline). I will call out the numbers 1-8 in random order, so that you won't know which number is coming next.

Once you've decided which 8 you want to play, you have the additional choices of up to 2 preps, and trumping(no more than 4 trumps are allowed).

Preps:
You don't have to use preps, but they can be very useful for certain characters. Prepping a character gives them 24 hours of advanced knowledge of who they are fighting, and allows them to create plans, prepare their arsenal, or anything else you think they might be able to do in that 24 hours. Prepped characters are given a tablet like supercomputer, on which will be found information about their opponent, such as known weaknesses and personal history, they will also be provided with DNA samples of their opponents, and a small, insignificant sample of anything their opponent may be vulnerable to(such as kryptonite in the case of a kryptonian) so that they might analyze it. The prepped character will be considered to be in their base of operations for that 24 hour period, and will not be able to enlist the aid of others(unless they happened to be trumped with another character).

Trumps:
Trumping characters together allows you to play 2 or 3 characters on 1 number. This is accomplished by forfeiting the other numbers. You will play the characters to be trumped on a number as usual, but you will write that they are trumped with another character. On the other character's number, you will put that they are trumped with the initial character(see the example below). Depending on which number I call first will determine which number you forfeit. If you decide to prep your trump, you will consume both of your preps, so that you cannot prep any other characters. You do not have to trump. Trumps, like preps, are an optional strategy.

Locations:
Each matchup will take place in a different location: every time you switch opponents, the location will change. What this has to do with how you play your numbers is up to you as well. Locations are generally neutral, although they may contain an element that a certain character may struggle with(like Namor in the desert).

After you've decided all that, your team and numbers should look something like this:

I have chosen to trump Freefall and Fairchild. This means that if I call #1 first, I forfeit #5, and the other team gets the win on that number.

How you decide who to put on what number, to prep, or to trump, is totally up to you.

Ties & Team Battles
Since there are an even amount of numbers to be called, it means that the possibility of a tie exists. If that happens, we will move into a team battle. This is simply all of your characters, to include the benched characters, vs. all of your opponent's characters fighting all at the same time. Teams are considered prepped, and will be able to work together prior to the fight in whatever capacity they are capable of. At this point things like character personalities and general cohesion may be taken into account, so you may want to watch just who it is you're throwing together on the same team(or maybe you don't--that's up to you).

And that's it. That's all you, as a GM, need to do. Draft your team and choose how to deploy them. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me, and I'm sure the judges have an open PM box as well.

The Schedule and Playoffs
The schedule is round robin, meaning you will face each of your fellow GMs one time, for a total of 7-9 matchups. After that, the top 4 teams with the best record will advance to the playoffs.
The playoffs will be single elimination, and will begin with the #1 seed vs the #4 seed and the #2 seed vs the #3 seed, and so on until the champion is crowned, with a 3rd place bracket for the losers of the first round.

Started lurking for the first time since the move a couple weeks ago and caught up on the b-ball draft. You guys must have sensed my presence or something. The talk of breathing life back into this behemoth started a couple days later.

On a side note I do love how the webpage is much more "polished" now... but the dead links make me sad. Is there a way to get email updates of when people post to this thread or is there an iphone app for this? Sorry, I moved out to Silicon Valley and I'm immersed in apps and tech.

Items:No Infinity GemsZemo will be with Moonstones, and Moonstone is in possession of 1 Moonstone(but currently still has the retained power from the broken one, so that's fair game)
Quasar is in possession of the quantum bands

Do me a favor: if you guys see any duplicates let me know. Some people got moved to team lists or vice versa, and in doing this on my phone.